It is impossible to tell which of the two dispositions we find in men is more harmful in a republic, that which seeks to maintain an established position or that which has none but seeks to acquire it.

I say violence is necessary. It is as American as cherry pie.

The poor have sometimes objected to being governed badly; the rich have always objected to being governed at all.

There is no method by which men can be both free and equal.

Politics is the art of preventing people from taking part in affairs which properly concern them.

A real leader is somebody who can help us overcome the limitations of our own individual laziness and selfishness and weakness and fear and get us to do better, harder things than we can get ourselves to do on our own.

I shall be an autocrat: that’s my trade. And the good Lord will forgive me: that’s his.

I’m president of the United States, and I’m not going to eat any more broccoli!

Democracy is the recurrent suspicion that more than half of the people are right more than half of the time.

You should never have your best trousers on when you go out to fight for freedom and truth.

Whether for good or evil, it is sadly inevitable that all political leadership requires the artifices of theatrical illusion. In the politics of a democracy, the shortest distance between two points is often a crooked line.

Treaties, you see, are like girls and roses: they last while they last.

An appeal to the reason of the people has never been known to fail in the long run.